On Wednesday, October 21st, the retail giant Walmart announced the launch of two new tools – “Agent Profiles” and “Walmart Agent Gateway,” allowing AI agents (AI intelligences) to shop for customers and complete transactions. This move by Walmart stands in contrast to Amazon, which has been restricting third-party AI agents’ access to its platform.
Walmart stated that next month, they will introduce “Agent Profiles,” allowing customers to authorize specific profiles for each AI agent, enabling separate tracking of their purchase history. Customers can also set spending limits, such as $50, $100, or $200, or require personal approval for each transaction.
Additionally, customers will have the ability to monitor the purchasing behavior of AI agents and can revoke access at any time.
Walmart also introduced the “Walmart Agent Gateway,” enabling AI assistants like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Meta’s Muse to directly connect to Walmart and Sam’s Club systems to search for products and make purchases. This feature is expected to begin testing with businesses and developers.
Emphasizing that customers will retain control of the shopping process, Walmart outlined that AI agents are prohibited from accessing payment card data, taking actions beyond customer intent, or adding/changing payment methods. Any violation of these rules by AI agents will result in them being blocked from accessing the Walmart website.
The company noted that all Walmart account holders can utilize these tools without requiring “Walmart+” membership. The return process for goods purchased by AI agents is the same as for regular customers.
Mizuho Securities analyst David Bellinger commented in a research report that these tools inject confidence into the “experimental” process of agent shopping. Bellinger added, “The drive and support displayed by the senior management team seem to be making this a reality.”
This contrasts sharply with Amazon’s blocking of Meta’s AI agent “Muse.” Amazon halted Muse’s shopping functionality on Amazon.com in late September due to reasons such as lack of prior notification, failure to self-identify as an AI agent, and potential credential capture.
Moreover, Muse had incidents where it shared users’ home addresses with Facebook Marketplace buyers without consent, leading to direct visits. During public testing and early stages, Muse faced multiple unauthorized security issues, including changing user passwords without permission and sending strange messages, causing Meta to postpone its launch multiple times.
However, Amazon has deeply integrated its AI shopping assistant, Rufus, into the Alexa ecosystem, evolving into the new “Alexa for Shopping.” Amazon’s AI agent now features cross-platform searching, price comparison, recommendations, and automatic checkout through the “Buy for Me” function.